2016/02/24 by Angnis Schmidt-May, Schmidt-May, Angnis
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1602.07520
openalex publication_date 2016/02/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We give a basic introduction to ghost-free nonlinear theories involving massive spin-2 fields, focussing on bimetric theory. After motivating the construction of such models from field theoretical considerations, we review the linear theories for massive and massless spin-2 fluctuations propagating on maximally symmetric backgrounds. The structure of general nonlinear spin-2 interactions is explained before we specialise to the ghost-free case. We review the maximally symmetric solutions of bimetric theory, its mass spectrum and the parameter limit which brings the theory close to general relativity. Finally we discuss applications of bimetric theory to cosmology with particular emphasis on the role of the general relativity limit.